


If This Is It

by The5thCat



Series: If This Is It [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Divergence - The Dragon Prince (Cartoon), F/M, POV Callum, POV Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Season/Series 03 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23239510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The5thCat/pseuds/The5thCat
Summary: “I love you,” Rayla blurted, unable to hold it in any longer. She barely noticed Callum’s arms go completely rigid, and his mouth hung open a little bit, whatever thoughts he’d stirred up instantly dashed. Zym wailed again, and she knew that she couldn’t delay anymore. “And I’m so, so sorry.”A short reimagining of one of the final scenes in S3:E9, or: the one where Rayla confesses her feelings first. Some extra helpings of Rayllum
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Series: If This Is It [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675750
Comments: 5
Kudos: 110





	If This Is It

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, all. I binge-watched The Dragon Prince for the first time and couldn't get any of it out of my head as I finished S3, especially Rayllum. And since the fandom appears to prefer AO3, I made an account to post this story and follow some others. This is just a one-shot that reimagines the scene where Rayla tackles Viren off the cliff to save Zym, with a little extra Rayllum and a little less split-second decision making. I hope it's enjoyable. Some minor spoilers ahead if you haven't finished Season 3.

Viren, or at least what used to be him, stood there on the edge of the summit, a foul vortex of dark energy spiraling outward from the tip of his accursed staff. The massive caterpillar creature was draped around his neck like a regal cord, its skin a murky mixture of purplish hues. Trapped in the vortex was Zym, mewling as the terrible twister brought him closer and closer, the magical energy in his young body crackling as it was siphoned out by Viren. The clouds seemed to bleed, the abhorrent magic in the air sullying their soft evening shade with a rusty, unnatural color.

Rayla grimaced, crawling to her knees at the foot of the staircase. A moment ago, she’d been just about to drive her swords into Viren’s back, but something had halted her charge and kicked her back down the way she’d come, stealing the wind from her lungs as she slammed against the cobblestones at the bottom of the steps. Her blades had gone flying from her hands with the force of the phantom blow, tumbling out of sight. Viren didn’t even seem bothered by her. Whatever vile sorcery the mage had cast to protect himself, it seemed to have even shielded her presence from his mind.

“Rayla!” Callum’s voice sang to her, and the boy appeared in her peripheral vision. One of his hands found her shoulder, his calming touch serving to lower her blood pressure if only a little, and she succumbed to the faintest of smiles. It felt inappropriate, but she was grateful that he was at least here with her, that she didn’t have to face this alone.

Callum looked away from her at the scene on the edge of the precipice, horror streaking across his face. “Zym!” The Dragon Prince wailed, a pitiful little shriek above the damning roar of Viren’s vortex.

“I can feel the power!” Viren bellowed, even his voice distorted by the dark magic running through his veins. “All the power in the world!”

Zym’s whimpering turned Rayla’s nerves to steel and her muscles went taut, tightening like the assassin’s bind that had once nearly taken her hand off. They couldn’t keep standing here. It had been her job to protect Zym, and she couldn’t fail that now, not when it seemed—judging by Callum’s presence beside her—that they’d otherwise won the battle down below.

And without her weapons, there was only one way she felt this could end.

“I know what I have to do,” she said, as resolute as the evening sun above her.

“Let’s go,” Callum said, determined to stand beside her. Rayla’s heart broke, though she refrained from shaking her head at him. It had to be her, and her alone. Her life in exchange for the Dragon Prince’s.

“I’m sorry, Callum,” said Rayla, turning to him. His eyes flicked over to her and his adorable eyebrows knitted together with confusion. He was making her stupid when she needed to be strong. She shook away the burgeoning warmth in her gut and fisted her hand in his scarf, four fingers curling closed to clasp around the fabric.

There was so much she wanted to say. So much she had planned to say before, or last night, or just that morning. But in each of those moments, she hadn’t been able to find it in herself to speak her mind, too afraid that maybe he didn’t feel the same, or that she’d distract him from what really mattered.

But if she was going to die now, she had to say it. She couldn’t leave him forever without saying those words. Deep down, she knew it was far too soon; they’d only been together like that for a few weeks now, barely known one another for two months. But she knew her feelings were true, and he needed to know them before she left him.

“What—” Callum stuttered, and Rayla surged at him. She captured his lips with her own, tears starting to build up behind her eyelids as she kissed him. Callum froze, startled, only for his moment of surprise to melt into reciprocation. He began to kiss her back, but Rayla only let him do so for half a second. Inside herself she knew that if she waited any longer, she wouldn’t be able to pull away from him, and then it might be too late.

Rayla retreated, if only a few inches. Their lips separated and Rayla opened her eyes, feeling the tears start to spill from her eyes. Callum, in his daze, began to form the rest of whatever question he’d been about to ask on his lips.

“I love you,” Rayla blurted, unable to hold it in any longer. She barely noticed Callum’s arms go completely rigid, and his mouth hung open a little bit, whatever thoughts he’d stirred up instantly dashed. Zym wailed again, and she knew that she couldn’t delay anymore. “And I’m so, so sorry.”

Rayla surged out of his grip, batting away his hands as he instinctively clawed at her to try and keep her with him. His head was surely as foggy as could be, and Rayla felt horrible to be leaving him this way, but for the life of her she couldn’t fathom any other choice. All she knew was that it had to be her. Protecting the Dragon Prince was her mantle to take up, and hers alone. She owed her parents that much for thinking them cowards.

Callum was too valuable, too irreplaceable. If she’d shared what she was going to do, she knew that he would’ve refused to let her and instead volunteered himself. Or maybe he would’ve come up with a different solution. It was too late now. Callum was the first and only human to have forged a connection with the Sky Arcanum, or any Arcanum for that matter. Wherever today left humanity, they would need him. They didn’t need her. She was only a Moonshadow elf. An assassin.

More than that, she was a Dragonguard.

Rayla ran, her usually light feet feeling like great boulders as she focused her sight solely on Viren, spawning that vile vortex and crackling with iridescent energy. She lifted her legs with a purpose, galloping up the small staircase three steps at a time so that she was back on the dais in a split-second.

Callum screamed, and she barely registered it. He’d figured it out—she wasn’t slowing down. He always was a little too smart for his own good, behind all the goofiness and curiosity that had so unexpectedly won her over. A part of Rayla wanted to turn back, to find another way, but she knew that she couldn’t. There was no time, and she had no weapon. Perhaps Callum could’ve cast something, but she feared that Viren would hear him do so and deflect the spell. He could have half a mind to kill them both before returning to extinguishing Zym’s precious little life, and then there’d be no one left to help the baby dragon.

She, on the other hand, was as light as could be on her feet. She was all they needed to put a stop to Viren’s malevolence.

Perhaps this was where it was always going to end. Her relationship with Callum was to be a fleeting thing, a taste of the last great reach of connection one could have with another before she died. A blessing before she joined Runaan in the stars. Before she joined her parents. They’d be proud of her, she knew. And for the first time in far too long, Rayla was proud of them. They hadn’t been cowards, and neither would she. She’d avenge their sacrifice now, destroying the man who had taken them from her.

Rayla ducked her head, feeling the slightest bit of resistance as she ran through something ethereal. Maybe she’d broken the spell somehow? She didn’t stop to consider it. Instead she braced, shutting her eyes and throwing all of her weight into Viren’s unsuspecting back. The dark mage yelped and left his feet.

And Rayla plummeted over the edge of the Storm Spire with him.

_“No!”_ Callum _screamed_ , louder than he ever had before as he realized her intent. Her decision of sacrifice. Rayla’s confession rang in his ears, her sweet voice and thick elven accent absolute music to his heart and soul.

She was his everything.

So, as Rayla tackled Viren off of the mountainside, he did what any lovesick idiotic teenage mage-in-training would’ve done. He dumped his bag on the ground and jumped down after her.

Callum gasped as he dove through the thick ring of clouds just below the summit, the world thousands upon thousands of feet below him materializing before his eyes in an instant. It was terrifying. Too far below him, three shapes plummeted: Viren, that definitely unholy caterpillar thing around his neck, and her. His Moonshadow elf assassin that he was so terribly head-over-heels in love with.

Had someone told him the night they met, when she’d introduced herself by pointing two wicked, razor-sharp swords at his throat and threatened his life, that he’d end up falling for her, he didn’t know what he would’ve done, short of laughing his head off in a self-deprecating manner before walking away to his room to be embarrassed. Humans and elves were enemies, even if he didn’t really get why. Love between them was impossible, unthinkable, intolerable.

And yet here he was, jumping off the side of a mountain for her. Rayla’s body tumbled until her back faced the ground, and her amethyst eyes went wide with horror as she recognized him falling after her. She reached out with four desperate fingers, clawing at the enormous space between them.

He had to try and save her… or die trying alongside her.

“Come on, come on! This has to work,” he begged to no one in particular. The Sky Source, maybe. If that was a thing. He stuck his arms out in front of him, his coat sleeves billowing in the rushing wind. “Okay, okay, Manus Pluma Volantus, Manus Pluma Volantus!” he shouted. Nothing happened, and his heart hammered in his chest. He glanced down again to Rayla, sailing straight for the earth below and reaching out towards him as if her arm could extend one hundredfold and catch him.

“I love you too, Rayla,” he said against the wind, knowing that she couldn’t hear him. His heart shattered, and if the wind were not scorching his eyeballs, he might’ve started to cry. He hadn’t been able to say it back. “I love you.”

Callum recalled Ibis’ words. He was saying the words right, right? Yes, of course he was. He didn’t just forget these things. He remembered how the Skywing elf had stood in front of him, with no pomp or circumstance behind the spell. Ibis had been so steady when he’d spoken the words, so collected and focused. Callum stuck his arms out in front of him once more and closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down. If he lost his composure now, he’d never get the spell to work, and he and Rayla would die without a doubt.

He had to relax. He needed to let go.

He had to _be the wing._

“Manus,” Callum chanted, channeling his breathing so that it was even and focused, “Pluma.” He felt the magic within him surge, the energy he’d fought so hard to prove was there even when everyone else insisted it was not, because humans couldn’t do magic. It flowed throughout his body, stirring from his core into his arms and growing.

“Volantus.”

The skin on his arms prickled for an instant, like a rush of pins and needles. The wind howled in his ears, and the tingling in his arms suddenly grew. Spindly brown fibers speared through the fabric of his sleeves, more and more joining them and growing so large that they tore clean through the material. He realized once they grew enough that they were feathers, and as the pristine blown plumage spread down the entire length of his arms, he realized with a start that they were wings. The spell had worked!

His sleeves disintegrated as his wings surged forth, and suddenly he was diving down that much faster, the wind skating across his downy feathers like Bait down a slippery slope. Rayla’s shape grew rapidly as he closed in, and she seemed startled as he reached for her. Callum ensnared her in his newfound wings and she grabbed around his neck, and then he extended those wings as far as they could go, the resulting wind kicking them both high up on the air currents. For a moment, he heard Viren’s screams, but to Callum they fell on deaf ears. The dead mage was not worth the energy. The only thing he could focus on was Rayla’s face, her eyes snapped shut as if she’d been bracing herself to be struck by him when he flew down to catch her.

Rayla’s eyes fluttered open as the wind calmed around them, letting them glide up. It was suddenly so much calmer, the gusts of their frantic fall instantly a thing of the past. Rayla blinked as she looked up at him, needing a moment to process that she was in fact still alive, and had not struck the ground only to be poisoned with the image of Callum chasing after her as her spirit left her body.

The smile that shot onto her face was so beautiful he almost kissed her right then and there.

“Callum!?” she shouted, though she didn’t really need to. He was right there in front of her. Her eyes trailed down his body and she gasped as she scolded him and admired him at once. “What were you thinking!? A-and you’re flying! How…?”

“Because I love you, Rayla. I love you so, so much,” Callum gushed, “And I couldn’t just let you go, I—”

Rayla surged up to kiss him, quieting him before he had a chance to start rambling. He melted into the sensation of her lips on his, and briefly felt the urge to wrap his wings around her, stopping himself only because he had just enough remaining presence of mind to think better of that. Instead he flapped his wings (and what an unusual action that was) to kick them up onto another gust of wind. Rayla gently pulled away, her hands still locked together on the back of his neck. She was blushing, and it was utterly adorable.

“I love you too, Callum,” Rayla said, and the words were music to his ears, so much more soothing than when she’d meant for them to be their final parting words. Her expression creased with a flash of concern. “Now, can we find some sweet, solid ground to land on? I think I’m going to start slipping in a moment here.”

"Developing a fear of the sky, too?" Rayla's eyes narrowed at him and Callum chuckled as he tilted in the air, letting the wind carry him back around toward the peak of the Storm Spire. “Sure thing, Rayla,” he said, and she relaxed.

They drifted through the clouds and the mountain came into view, Ezran and Aunt Amaya bounding to the dais at the summit. Amaya waved, seemingly unsurprised to see that Callum had sprouted wings, while Ez pumped his fists and jumped up and down in the air, Bait beaming at his feet and Zym on his shoulder (and holding on for dear life as the younger boy bounced with glee). Rayla tilted her head away from Callum so she could look and made a mental note to give Bait an extra helping of belly rubs for helping free her from the ice in the nearby chamber. Callum had mentioned something about the glow toad loving them, but she hadn’t had the opportunity to find out if he’d been messing with her.

Below, along the winding paths scaling up the Storm Spire, warriors let out jubilant cheers, some of them human and some of them elf. Upon a closer look, they were almost everywhere along the top half of the mountain, crowding both the circling paths leading up to the summit and the bridge that connected the two peaks. Sunfire elves hoisted their shields in the air, while the men and women of Katolis and Duren waved their swords and bows around.

Rayla pulled herself up on Callum’s neck so she could lean some of her weight on him and raise one hand to wave as they closed in on the dais. Callum did his best to land, entirely giving up once the dais was completely underneath them and just letting both of them fall to the ground. Rayla landed as gracefully as always on her feet while Callum lost his footing and stumbled to his knees, his brilliant brown wings going limp at his sides. He was exhausted—the spell had suddenly taken a lot out of him.

Concern struck across Ezran’s face. “Callum, are you okay?”

He smiled weakly and nodded as Rayla stooped down to rest a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah… just… tired…” his wings quietly receded, the feathers retreating back into his skin until his normal arms appeared anew, the Sky runes he’d painted on them bubbling with a faint glow. His sleeves, unfortunately, had been completely torn apart, the tattered strands around the cuffs of his shoulders all that remained of them.

“Perfectly normal for a first-time flyer,” a new voice said, and Callum looked up to see Ibis and the Sunfire general ascending the final steps up to the dais. The Skywing elf was grinning, “Color me impressed, Callum. You’re something special.”

Rayla squeezed Callum’s shoulder and he looked up to meet her gaze. “He certainly is,” she said, beaming. Zym chirped from Ezran’s shoulder, concurring.

Amaya spoke up—or rather, signed. _The battle is over. We have won._

Callum nodded, and with an almost wistful smile, recognized that their quest was finally over. “And the Dragon Prince is finally safe.” Zym chirruped on Ezran’s shoulder, earning a few scratches for his trouble.

“Alright,” Rayla asserted and fastened her other hand around Callum’s arm, “I think our sky mage needs a nap to sleep off managing to grow wings.” Her smile left him with a warm feeling in his gut, the paralyzing panic of watching her tumble over the edge of the Storm Spire long gone.

Callum let himself be pulled to his feet and agreed with a sleepy grumble. A nap sounded heavenly right about now. The growing crowd in front of them parted to make a path, and Callum leaned on Rayla as she guided him down the steps. Never in his life had he felt so exhausted that he thought he could fall asleep standing up. Even as elves and humans cheered as one around them, he grew drowsier and drowsier.

“Don’t you go die on me now,” Rayla said, “I might have to kill you.”

Callum managed a sleepy smile. “Says the one…” he paused to yawn, “who threw herself off a mountain.”

“You followed me, you heroic dolt,” Rayla drawled back with a measured laugh. They said nothing else the rest of the way down, which wasn’t very far. The vast majority of the climb up the Storm Spire was merely from the ground to the den of the Dragon Queen, so the trek from the summit to that same den was miniscule by comparison. Rayla remained at his side the whole way, supporting his weight as he stumbled closer and closer to sleep. The catnap he was about to take would be a long one; Callum felt as if he’d been awake for days on end.

They entered the den and Rayla led him to the sleeping mats they’d arranged in the corner of the chamber. The Dragon Queen’s den was further down, the regal beast within still deep in her unending sleep. Callum hoped they could wake her soon. With all of their recent troubles, he’d forgotten that Zym’s mother still slumbered, quietly clutching to the edge of life without the knowledge that her lost baby yet lived.

They reached the mats and Rayla lifted Callum’s arm over his head to help him lie down. The exhausted young mage practically crashed onto the mat, releasing a great exhale as he relaxed.

“Right, well,” Rayla stuttered, “I’ll let you get to it.”

At that, Callum stuck out his arm, though not remotely in Rayla’s direction. His vision was already starting to blur, the clutches of sleep rapidly closing around him. “Stay,” he implored her. It wasn’t that he needed anyone to watch over him, but he wanted her there. It would make him feel a little safer. For all he knew, Rayla might try to throw herself off the mountain again.

Rayla smiled softly down at him. “Sure, Callum,” she said, and then she was sitting down on the mat beside him where she’d spent the last few nights, not quite in his arms, but as close as she could otherwise be. They’d been in agreement about taking things slow, especially with Ezran around again.

Rayla laid on her side so she faced Callum. He gave her a drowsy smirk. “I love you, Rayla,” he said, and the words felt so natural on his tongue that he couldn’t imagine saying them to anyone else.

Rayla’s violet eyes glowed and a warm color rose to her cheeks. “I love you too, Callum,” she said, and watched his eyes drift closed. She decided she’d wait here for him to wake up and threaten anyone who intruded on his sleep. He’d earned the rest.

For the first time, she wondered what the next days of her life were going to look like. Not very long ago, she had planned to give her life to protect Zym’s. Now, it seemed, they had all the time in the world.

Rayla watched Callum sleep, and thought about the future.


End file.
